North Australian Workers Union

Until the mid 1960s the North Australian Workers Union (NAWU)
had paid little regard to the position of Aboriginal workers in the
pastoral industry in Northern Territory. These workers were
controlled by the Welfare Ordinance and the Wards
Employment Ordinance and were thus ineligible for the award
wages received by non-Aboriginal workers.

The formation, in late 1961, of the Northern Territory Council
for Aboriginal Rights, which had equal wages central to its
platform, led to pressure on the Union in this regard. In September
1964, the Social Welfare Ordinance replaced the old
Welfare Ordinance, making possible the introduction of
award wages. The following month, the Central Council of the NAWU
took the decision to appoint an Aboriginal organiser. Sydney James
Cook was the first to hold this post but he was successfully
challenged by Dexter Daniels, a Roper River man whose brother Davis
was secretary of the Northern Territory Council for Aboriginal
Rights. The stage was set for action on equal wages in the
industry.

The NAWU applied to vary the Cattle Station Industry
(Northern Territory) Award to include Aboriginal workers.
Throughout 1965 Conciliation and Arbitration hearings were held on
this matter. The Union did not bring any Aboriginal workers forward
as witnesses in arguing for their inclusion in the award, treating
the issue rather as a matter of principle. The Commission ruled in
favour of equal wages, but gave the industry until December 1968 to
implement the decision.

In response, workers walked off stations at Newcastle Waters,
Wave Hill and other pastoral properties in the Northern Territory
in protest, beginning an action which culminated in the return, a
decade later, of land to the Gurindji people.

Due to a downturn in the cattle industry as well as the
introduction of road trains and helicopter mustering, the equal
wages decision was never particularly beneficial to Aboriginal
pastoral workers.

References

Bernie Brian, 'The Territory's one big union: The rise and fall
of the North Australian Workers Union', PhD thesis, Northern
Territory University, 2001

Andrew Markus, 'Talk longa mouth' in A Curthoys and A Markus,
Who Are Our Enemies? Racism and the Working Class in
Australia, Hale and Iremonger, 1978